Fitness and your Finances

This post is fourth in a series of six articles on how fitness benefits many other areas of your life. So far, we’ve discussed how challenging fitness regimen can improve your productivity, disposition, and relationships.

Today, we’ll investigate the connection between your fitness and finances. Although at first glance these two subjects may seem to be unrelated, in fact there are many aspects of these two areas that affect each other.

Your Premiums

The first and most obvious way that your fitness affects your finances relates to your medical care. As we all have become clearly aware, medical costs have skyrocketed in this country in the last several years. Medical insurance premiums climb and climb, and take a big chunk out of your paycheck when payday comes. Oftentimes, we can feel powerless in this situation–but there are things you can do to improve this situation for yourself and your community.

Much research has been done relating the effects of exercise on a person’s health. It has been clearly demonstrated that regular exercise benefits the body in many ways, including improving heart health and reducing diabetes. Insurance companies do a myriad of tests to see what kind of shape your body is in before issuing life or health insurance, since they know that your fitness and health have a strong impact on the amount of medial care you will need.

A Grassroots Solution

While our politicians argue about the best way to handle healthcare from a federal perspective, we can take steps now to improve our own health personally–helping to solve the problem from the ground up. Over time, a nation of healthier people will require less medical care, and insurance companies will be able to charge smaller premiums while maintaining their margins. As we’ve stated before, there’s no question of the link between exercise and good health–the problem is that so many just aren’t doing it!

Making Time

Often, when people are asked why they don’t exercise, even though the health benefits are so clear, they will answer, “I just don’t have time.” While I’ll always contend that such an answer is always just a cop-out and should really be translated, “it’s not a high priority in my life,” it is certainly true that we Americans are busy. It’s easy to fill our schedules with work, family, and play, and if we’re not careful, our week can full up and we’ve never made the time for a fitness regimen.

But by recongnizing the link between exercise today and health tomorrow, we can find the motivation to put on those gym clothes at 5 AM. By further recognizing the connection to our health and our pocketbook, this motivation can become even stronger. As we’ve discussed, the more of us who make fitness a priority and improve our health, the lower our healtch care cost as a nation can be. And of course, insurance premiums aside, going to the doctor pulls directly from your account as well via co-pays and deductibles.

Get Wealthy and Fit

So, the next time your buddy gloats about the Carrabean cruise he’s going on that you can’t afford, think about the connection between your fitness, your health, and your pocketbook. Use that understanding to motivate you to get in the gym and fuel a total commitment while you’re there. As you know, the beauty of the ThriveFit program is that it’s a very short time commitment (most workouts take less than 10 minutes), but in order to reap the fitness benefits you want, your workout must be at full throttle.

Years later, when you invite your buddy out to your lake house for a summer vacation, you’ll not only have surpassed him financially, but will look better in your bathing suit too!